MIAMI (Ticker) -- Brian Grant scored 21 points as the Miami Heat
overcame a 6 1/2-minute drought at the start of the fourth
quarter and held off the New Jersey Nets, 75-70, to snap a
three-game losing streak.

Grant scored five of Miami's 13 points in the final period,
including a dunk that gave the Heat a 71-61 lead with 1:26
remaining.

Down 18 points, the Nets started the fourth quarter with a 12-0
run, closing to 62-56 on Stephon Marbury's jumper with 5:40 to
play.

"This is one of those games where you have the win, but you're
kind of disappointed the way things ended up," Grant said.

"We lost the focus and the commitment to work the game," Miami
coach Pat Riley added. "We start standing around and the ball
began to stick. We turned it over two or three times and they
got back into it."

Former Net Anthony Mason, who had 17 points and 10 rebounds, got
Miami's first basket of the period on a reverse layup with 5:20
left before Grant made two free throws to get the lead back up
to 10 with 4:15 to go.

The Heat avoided matching their season-high four-game losing
streak from November 22-28.

"Could we have done things better? Yeah, but you can do things
better when you win by 50," Mason said. "They made a push. We
made some mistakes. But once again, you go back to the
beginning of the year when we give up these games. This team's
shown composure that even if a team makes a run, we know how to
finish."

Johnny Newman scored 17 points for the Nets, who suffered their
ninth straight road loss. Marbury was held to 10 points by the
physical Heat after averaging 32 in his previous three games.

"He's more frustrated than anybody," New Jersey coach Byron
Scott said. "He's a young player and he has to learn that teams
are going to do this to him. He has to rely on other guys to
make shots. He has to roll with the punches and stretch the
defense to get other guys open shots."

Trailing 44-35 at halftime, New Jersey scored only nine points
in the third period to fall behind, 62-44.

"You have to play and compete for 48 minutes, and we didn't,"
Scott said. "They played hard for 48 solid minutes of
basketball. They're going to bang you and bump you. They were
more aggressive and we just weren't."

But the Nets made it interesting down the stretch, getting
within 72-68 on Keith Van Horn's 3-pointer with 16.4 seconds
left. After Bruce Bowen made 1-of-2 from the line, Aaron
Williams' tip pulled New Jersey within three with 6.2 seconds to
go.

"To finish a game, you have to finish a game," Riley said. "You
can't play the score. I sensed at the top of the fourth quarter
that they looked up at the score and saw we were up 18 points
and figured it was over."

Eddie Jones, who added 16 points, clinched the win with a pair
from the line. But fellow guard Tim Hardaway scored only four
points on 1-of-13 shooting, and Riley directed some pointed
comments at his starting backcourt.

"They have to find a way to get it back and get it back quick,"
Riley said. "That's where our game starts. It begins and ends
with our backcourt even though our big guys are formidable. We
have to have better guard play than that."

"The last couple games have been atrocious," Hardaway admitted.
"I think what he's (Riley) saying is that I have to pick the
team's energy up. I understand where he's coming from and I'll
starting making shots. Starting on Tuesday, I'll start making
shots. If he's going to put it on us, we have to respond."

Neither team shot 40 percent from the field. Miami finished at
37.5 percent (27-of-74), including 4-of-17 from 3-point range.

New Jersey was slightly better at 38 percent (27-of-71) but made
just 3-of-19 from beyond the arc. The Nets scored only 13
points in the second quarter.

"We just had two quarters where we just were not scoring," Van
Horn said. "Thirteen and nine points in back-to-back quarters is
just not going to cut it, no matter how good a defense you
play."